Saturday, October 31, 2009

Hubby and I have been completely captivated by the story of Christopher McCandless after Aunty Claire recommended we watch the movie. We've rewatched the movie (and will again), both read the book AND have the soundtrack on an almost continuous loop. (Eddie Vedder - how I love you - see you later this month!) We have at least one conversation each day about the story too;-) Maybe it's a bit cliche for a couple of almost middle-aged people to become engrossed in such an adventure (foolhardy) story as we feel shackled by our comfort and settledness but it's well worth the watch/read.

I had started to make myself a sunhat from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing but it became very clear it was going to be too small despite the fact I have a pinhead! So Big Girl scored and loves it!Sew Liberated's Flora Tunic - using the rest of a thrifted sheet.

A Pillowcase dress from Handmade Home. It's the perfect length for a Big Girl Tunic without chopping any length off it. And yes, from the thrifted sheet set;-) We've got our money's worth.

Another Flora Tunic from leftover Prairie Dress fabric.

A Little House on the Prairie dress with $1/metre fabric from stash.

The full Holly Hobbie look again;-)

Mama's Schoolhouse Tunic in the shirt length - with some cheapy old fabric from deep in the stash. I put hook and eyes across the front of mine so I can close it if I don't want the top underneath to show. My Retro Redux Shrug in Cascade 220 from South Seas Knitting.

Frilly Angora-Merino booties from Luxury One Skein Wonders. These are truely teeny. They never would have fitted my babbies' clodhoppers!

It was fun firing up the sewing machine yesterday after a bit of a hiatus - inspired by Meg's patterns arriving in the post this week. So I was able to churn out the three tunics for me and my lil' ladies. It's a good feeling watching the fabric stash decrease too (gotta quickly create some space for more fabric that is arriving in a month or so - eek).

Saturday, October 3, 2009

I LOVE bags. I love the Mama's Bag out of Handmade Home. I used a couple of fat quarters from my stash - perfect size. I'm now not allowing myself to buy random fat quarters unless I have a project in mind but I was thankful that these were hiding away waiting for this very project. The bag would have more structure if I used heavier upholstery-weight fabric as Amanda recommends.

I added a snapable inside pocket for my Dr Bronner's lip balm which I compulsively carry everywhere. I was able to take the bag on a mama-only outing to lunch with some lovely friends just after I'd finished it this morning;-)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Seriously Spring, where are you? We are now into our sixth month of having a fire going. Not cool. I give up waiting for some decent lighting to take pics of my finished objects.

One of my long term goals is to get into patchwork quilting. I made M10 a cot quilt as a first birthday present with the idea to do one for each child but I stalled there. I even bought a walking foot for my sewing machine a couple of years ago which has sat languishing. I dragged it out recently, and grabbed my Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts book for a bit of how-to and whipped up some quilted coasters to pop into my gift box. Fun. I quilted!

My couch is in serious need of reupholstering, but until funds allow I thought a few cushions would obscure some of the worn-out-ness. I tried Log Cabin for the first time and used up some scraps and fat quarters that had been lurking in the stash.

Now, I'm just waiting for some cute patterns to arrive to cut into the Ginger Blossom stash for the girl's summer wardrobes. I really hope I can be disciplined enough to make quite a bit of their stuff. (Please excuse the link fest in this post. I know, I know - not an original idea to be found! Works for me though.)